Sounding authentic : an examination of how individual and personality differences in language affect deception

Research on cues for detecting deception have focused on two primary areas, verbal and nonverbal (e.g., body language; Bogaard et al., 2016; DePaulo et al., 2003). The current thesis examined if gender potentially plays a role in the production of language in a deceptive context. The Self-Report Psychopathy Test-IV (Paulhus et al., 2016) assessed the potential presence of psychopathic traits, while also examining the nature of their relationship with both gender and language. University undergraduate students were asked to recall either a truthful or deceptive trip they experienced while being interviewed in either a Be Detailed or Ghostwriter condition. Linguistic output was then analyzed using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC; Pennebaker et al., 2015a) and the Dictionary of Affective Language (DAL; Whissell, 2009). It was found that there was increased verbal output when participants were instructed with the Ghostwriter instructions, suggesting that small alterations in methodology can impact results and may explain previous contradictory findings. Somewhat surprisingly, positive affective language was found to be higher in the deceptive condition in the Be Detailed condition. Gender differences were also found in levels of psychopathic traits, where males tended to score higher than females. Levels of psychopathic traits were a significant covariate for disfluencies in the Be Detailed condition, suggesting that personality influences disfluencies. The current thesis provides additional information regarding linguistic cues to deceit, specifically variables that warrant further investigation (i.e., gender, personality, and context). This study also provides insights into potential methods for obtaining increased information in interview settings.Arts and Social Sciences, Irving K. Barber Faculty of (Okanagan)Graduat